Machine for polishing journals of railroad vehicle axles



Aug. 27, 1940. I DIXON 2,212,980

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' MACHINE FOR POLISHING JOURNALS 0F RAILROAD VEHICLE AXLES 4Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed 001;. 19, 1937 Aug. 27, 1940. w, w DlXON 2,212,980

MACHINE FOR POLISHING JOURNALS OF RAILROAD VEHICLE AXLES Filed Oct. 19,1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 1940- w. w. DIXON I 2,212,980

MACHINE FOR POLISHING JOURNALS OF RAILROAD VEHICLE AXLES Filed Oct. 19,1957 4 SheetsSheet 4 Patented Aug. 27, 1940 UNITE srA'rs MACHINE roePOLISHING JOURNALS or some VEHICLE AXLES Application October 19, 1937,Serial No. 169,890

,1 Claim.

My inventionrelates to means for polishing the journals of railroadvehicle axles.

As is well known, the axle and wheel assembly of railroad vehicles isstored in yards and is, therefore, exposed to the elements, as a resultof which the assembly becomes coated with rust. Before the assembly maybe safely used it isnecessary to remove the rust" and other deposit fromthe journal of the axle and it has been found a difiicult and timeconsuming job to do this properly without changing radius or scoring. Atthe present time axle journals are either polished by hand when thewheels are not in a lathe for other work or by the combination of handand machine work when axles or mounting wheels are in a lathe for otherwork.

The object of my invention is to provide a machine for polishing thejournals of axles that will not only reduce the time and labor necessary'to do this work, as it is now handled, but will do it with a higherdegree of accuracy, and with this and other objects in view my inventionconsistsframe.

Figure 6 is a front elevation of Figure 5. Figure 7 is a rear elevationof Figure 5. I Figure 8 is a front elevation of the elevator. Thereference numeral l designates the track rails suitably secured to abase 2. A carriage 3 is provided with wheels 4 and designed toreciprocate on said tracks, and is held firmly on the rails l at eachside by means of a spring 5. An elevator frame work 6 is mounted on thecarriage 3 and travels with the carriage, said elevator having anelevating screw 1 on which is mounted a cross head 8 which is adjustedup or down according to the direction in which the screw is revolved bythe handle 9. The side walls of the elevator frame are provided withelongated slots H3 in which the ends of the bolt I l are mounted. Thecross head 8 is connected with the screw 1 by means of the threadedelement l2. The cross head has a forwardly projection platform orsupport [3 on which is mounted a non-reversible air,

or other suitable motor M, which is suitably connected'by the shaft [5to the polishing element. The polishing element, or frame, comprisesbars iii which are connected at their rear ends to a frame ll which hasan opening; in which the .shaft E5 of the motor l4 issecured. The upperand lower pairs of arms it are hinged as at l9, as shown in Figures 1and 7, whereby they may be separated, as shown in Figure 1, to receivethe axle journal between them. These pairs of arms are held in closedposition by means of the locks l9 (see Figure 6). The forward ends ofthe arms 56 form a cage pocket in which are secured wooden, or othersuitable, blocks or polishing heads 20, each lined with a pad of emery,or other suitable cloth 2! that is folded so that it overlaps the blockapproximately one-half inch toward the journal fillet, and aboutone-quarter inch toward the collar of the journal. The arms it are ofsufiicient length and are positioned relative to each other at asufiicient diameter to permit the blocks 28 to travel the full length ofthe journals on the largest size axle.

A motor 22 of the reversible type is bolted. to the end of the rails I,and is directly connected to a feed screw 23, which screw is threadedthrough a lug 24 bolted to the underside of the carriage 3, so that whenthe motor 22 is in operation the rotation of the screw 23 forces thecarriage 3 along the rails forward and backward as the motor isreversed.

An automatic trip for reversing the motor 22 is connected to the side ofthe rails and comprises two adjmtable stops 24 mounted in standards 25,said standards being adjustably mounted on the rod 25 and held inadjusted position by means of the set screws 21. A tripper 28 is boltedto the carriage 3 and travels back and forth with the carriage and is solocated that it comes in contact with one of the adjustable stops 24when the carriage 3 has reached the predetermined end of travel. This isdetermined by the length of the journal. As the bar 26 is moved itoperates the links 28' and 29, and the link 29 operates the lever 3bwhich is directly connected tothe reversing valve on the motor 22. Thelink 28 is pivoted at H with its lower end connected to a spring 32.

, When the journals of a mounted pair of Wheels are ready to be polishedthe wheels are rolled into line with the center of the carriage 3 andthe elevator 6; the arms Hi withthe blocks 20 and polishing material 2!are separated, as shown in Figure 1. Thearms it are now closed andlocked together by means of the locks I9 with the polishing materialbearing against the surface of the journal, as shown in Figure 2. Themotor 54, when operated, starts the blocks 20 revolving on the journal.The reversible motor 22 is then started and the adjustable stops 24 soset that the reversible motor 22 will be reversed when the blocks 28have reached the ends of the journal, thus reversing the travel of theblocks 20 and polishing the journal from end to end.

Axles not mounted on wheels may also have the journals polished with theuse of this machine if they are properly mounted.

The emery block motion inward ends approximately at the base of thejournal fillet, the overlapping emery cloth preceding through the filletcurvature, giving a fine finish without changing radius or scoring; andin this manner on the reverse motion the small overlap of the emerycloth on the outside completes the polish of radius at the collar of thejournal before the travel is completed. As the work is doneautomatically the operator only applie oil on the journal a few timesduring the operation. The final operation is made with a carpet or feltpad which overlaps the blocks 2! in the same manner as the emery cloth,thus giving the entire surface the high polish desired.

The springs 5 are secured at their lower ends to the frame 5, which inturn is connected with the axle Ed, on which are mounted the rollers 5bwhich run on the lower edge or face of the rails I.

It is obvious that changes may be made in the details of constructionwithout departing from the spirit of the invention defined in theappended claim.

What I claim is:

In a device for polishing axle journals, a shaft, a polishing framecomprising a frame member disposed at one end of the frame and fixed tothe WALTER WILLIAM DIXON.

